1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to financial services, and, in particular, to offering and making choices between and among available instruments linked more or less closely to an underlying index, a financial instrument or a portfolio of financial instruments and choices between and among order entry and execution mechanisms in trading securities futures products on financial instruments for which a net asset value or other specified value such as a closing price is periodically calculated.
2. Background
The series of inventions that began with U.S. Pat. No. 7,444,300, filed on May 31, 2005 all relate to the development, operation, trading and other aspects of exchange traded portfolio or basket instruments for which a net asset value is periodically calculated. U.S. Pat. No. 7,496,531 filed on Mar. 7, 2007 relates to a net asset value-based trading mechanism. The instant inventor has recognized a need for extending aspects of U.S. Pat. No. 7,496,531 to derivative instruments, specifically securities futures products (SFPs) or single stock futures (SSFs) on financial instruments for which a net asset value or other specified value is periodically calculated. The instant inventor has also recognized a need to extend NAV-based trading and trading at or relative to other specified values to these derivative contracts where the price and/or value of the contract is linked to the underlying exchange-traded funds, notes, trusts or other portfolio instruments which have been the subject of the referenced patents and patent applications and to securities futures products with other underlying instruments.